USS INGRAHAM DD-694

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS INGRAHAM DD-694

The Tin Can Sailor, July 1998

The third ALLEN M. SUMNER-class destroyer to be constructed was one of the original eighteen laid down at Federal Shipbuilding’s Kearney ship “factory”. At any given time, as many as nine of the class were being built simultaneously. USS INGRAHAM was the third destroyer to be named for Capt. Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham, whose years of distinguished service in the Navy prior to the Civil War earned him a medal and the thanks of Congress.

USS INGRAHAM was launched on January 16, 1944 and commissioned on March 10 of the same year. Like most destroyers during the period, INGRAHAM cruised the waters around Bermuda to evaluate both the vessel and her crew. The location was ideal; defects and adjustments could be easily repaired at East Coast yards. In this instance, the shakedown and subsequent training in Norfolk was brief; INGRAHAM was assigned to service with the fast carrier forces in the Pacific. By Halloween, DD-694 entered the Eniwetok fleet anchorage and immediately began screening fast carriers.

The war had reached the Philippines when INGRAHAM began her service in the war zone, and she proved valuable in the traditional roles of a destroyer. She alternated between screening carriers, protecting invasion fleets, and marauding through the inlets and bays of the island chain. In one remarkable incident, DD-694, in the company of USS BARTON (DD-722), intercepted a 500 ton inter-island freighter just fifteen miles from the proposed landing site at Mindoro, blasting the Japanese craft out of the water before the intruder could warn of the impending assault.

INGRAHAM had another opportunity to practice her anti-shipping techniques when she was assigned to a fast carrier task force cruising off the Japanese “home islands”. The action was not without hazard. With her TBS (“Talk Between Ships” radio link) down and the force maneuvering, INGRAHAM missed an order to zigzag. She was immediately rammed by USS BARTON. The damage was minor and quickly repaired, and the wounded destroyer, along with two of her sisters, were detached in a scouting line to sweep the seas toward Iwo Jima. Hunting was good. Within two days, the destroyers had accounted for two freighters and a Type “D”, 740-ton escort vessel, NUMBER 56. The American vessels left the area before Japanese air forces could respond.

Following repairs at Saipan and a brief assignment to provide fire support for the Marines at Iwo Jima, INGRAHAM was ordered to cover the massive Allied effort to capture the island of Okinawa. On March 22, 1945, the “Mighty I”, as she was known to her crew, was assigned to picket duty. The first two assignments were relatively quiet, but the destroyer was soon shifted to one of the most active picket stations around the embattled island, “Roger Peter One”, some forty miles north of the main island. The patrol station sat athwart the main aircraft route from airfields in Japan. Another destroyer, USS MORRISON (DD-560), along with three landing craft, were assigned to support INGRAHAM on station.

On the morning of May 5, 1945, the forces at Picket Station 1 were hit by between forty and fifty aircraft. The fighters assigned to INGRAHAM’s combat air patrol accounted for some and the fire of the surface craft wiped out others, but the action was a bloody one. USS MORRISON was sunk by four suiciders and one of the landing craft also succumbed. INGRAHAM received a devastating hit; a kamikaze crashed into her port side, exploding in her forward diesel room. Casualties were fifteen dead and thirty-six wounded, but INGRAHAM accounted for six aircraft on her own, assisted in knocking down three others, and was credited with another by “ramming.” The enemy force was wiped out before it could reach the Allied transport anchorage to the south. With only one gun still operational, the destroyer was ordered to the West Coast for repairs. DD-694 was still under repair at the Hunter’s Point repair yard when hostilities ended.

In the post war years, INGRAHAM served both on the West and East coasts. She provided security at Operation CROSSROADS, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini, in 1946. By 1949, the veteran destroyer was home ported at Norfolk. The Soviet presence in the Atlantic, along with the threat of war in Europe, meant that INGRAHAM faced a new assignment. Like her sisters, she began a round of duties which alternated training cruises in the Atlantic with deployments to the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet.

INGRAHAM’s next “war” flared up far to the East, on the Korean peninsula. In the summer of 1953, DD-694 found herself blasting away at gun emplacements and supply depots in support of United Nations forces. Following the armistice, INGRAHAM was tasked with watching for suspicious North Korean activities that might signal a renewal of hostilities. There were none.

For the next ten years, INGRAHAM steamed from trouble spot to trouble spot. She helped stabilize the situation when tempers flared over control of the Suez Canal in 1956. Her operations with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean three years later helped to defuse a potential confrontation between NATO and the Soviet Bloc over Berlin. She also served as a recovery ship for “Sigma Seven”, a capsule in the early MERCURY space project.

INGRAHAM was refreshed and modernized with a FRAM I modification at Norfolk Navy Yard, beginning in December 1961. She left the Yard, after almost four million dollars worth of conversion, ready to resume her role as an anti-submarine unit in the Atlantic fleet. DD-694 found herself back in the Pacific in 1965, on her way to yet another war, this time in Vietnam. INGRAHAM was assigned to screen the aircraft carrier USS TICONDEROGA (CVA-14), but that didn’t prevent the pugnacious destroyer from getting “up close and personal” with the North Vietnamese invaders. During one remarkable operation, the destroyer steamed ten miles up the Saigon River to bombard guerilla bases in the area, then shifted three hundred miles to the north to hit targets of opportunity less than twenty-four hours later. Through January of 1966, DD-694 continued operations with Task Force 77, including an interesting stint at shadowing a Russian submarine off Hainan Island that could have posed a major threat to carriers operating on Yankee Station in the nearby Gulf of Tonkin. By 1966, INGRAHAM had returned to rounds of training exercises and “Med cruises” she had left the year before.

While her FRAM modernization had extended her useful life, INGRAHAM was soon overtaken by technology. By 1971, she was regarded as no longer able to serve effectively against the latest generation of Soviet submarines. With that in mind, the Navy announced its willingness to transfer DD-694 to our NATO ally, Greece.

The Hellenic Navy was happy to have such a fine vessel for deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean. The transfer ceremony occurred on July 16, 1971. USS INGRAHAM became H.S. MIAOULIS. She was retired from Greek service in 1995 after twenty-four years of active service, when American USS CHARLES E ADAMS class destroyers became available to the Greeks. Sources suggest that the former DD-694 is slated for scrapping, if that event has not already occurred.

USS INGRAHAM earned four battle stars for actions in World War II, as well as awards for Korea and Vietnam.

USS INGRAHAM DD-694 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, July 2015

The third Ingraham (DD-694) was launched 16 January 1944 by Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Kearny, N.J.; sponsored by Mrs. George Ingraham Hutchinson; and commissioned 10 March 1944, Comdr. H. W. Gordon in command.

After shakedown in Bermuda and training out of Norfolk, Ingraham sailed for duty with the Pacific Fleet, arriving Eniwetok 31 October in time to begin the final push of the enemy to its home islands. In mid-November she commenced screening carriers during strikes on Luzon in which considerable damage was done to the dwindling Japanese navy and air force. The destroyer continued patrol and antisubmarine duty until 12 December when she sailed for the assault and landings on Mindoro. Three days later in company with Barton, she sank a Japanese cargo ship off the southwest tip of Mindoro.

After a brief stay, she departed San Pedro 2 January 1945, for the operations in the Lingayen Gulf. Arriving off the Gulf on the sixth, she added her powerful antiaircraft fire to that of the invasion fleet, and bombarded shore targets behind the beaches.

At the end of January, Ingraham joined a fast carrier task force for strikes on the Japanese homeland. Following repair at Saipan 20 February, she joined the invasion fleet off Iwo Jima 23 February, and provided accurate call fire for the Marines ashore.

On 21 March the ship took up radar picket station in support of the Okinawa-Gunto operation. On 5 May, she came under concerted air attack, and shot down four of the enemy planes before a fifth crashed the ship above the waterline on the port side, its bomb exploding in the generator room. With only 1 gun operative, and with 51 casualties aboard, Ingraham retired to Hunter’s Point, Calif., for repairs.

After repairs she operated along the East Coast until 7 May 1946 when she departed for the atomic bomb tests at Bikini (another example of the Navy’s participation in technological development to strengthen America). After the tests and overhaul Ingraham departed San Diego 24 February 1947 for the Far East. The destroyer engaged in various exercises and in late June arrived Manila to act as official U.S. representative at the Philippine Independence anniversary. She returned to San Diego 8 October 1947.

Ingraham operated along California until 4 April 1949 when she departed San Diego for Norfolk, arriving 20 April. She participated in training exercises in the Atlantic until 24 November 1950 when she departed Norfolk for four months duty with the 6th fleet. Communist aggression in Korea once against threatened the peace of the world; and the U.S. Navy stood out as a symbol of strength to defeat this threat. She commenced exercises in the Atlantic during the summer of 1951, then made another cruise to the Mediterranean during the fall of 1951 and summer of 1952.

Ingraham departed Norfolk 24 April 1953 to escort carrier Lake Champlain to Japan via the Mediterranean and Suez Canal. She arrived Yokosuka 9 June and later that month joined the carrier task force providing air support to our forces in Korea. Her accuracy was excellent as she destroyed gun emplacements and supply areas. Following the truce, she operated on security patrol before returning to Norfolk 27 October. During 1954 the destroyer operated on hunter-killer operations, a cruise to South America, and NATO exercises out of Northern Ireland. She resumed training operations following overhaul in June 1955 and sailed on a summer training cruise to the Scandinavian countries, returning to Norfolk 6 September.

Ingraham departed Norfolk 28 July for duty with the 6th Fleet as trouble flared over the Suez Canal. The presence of the fleet was felt and the crisis was resolved without a major conflict. She returned to Norfolk 4 December to begin a series of training cruises climaxed by a NATO exercise in September and October 1957.

The destroyer returned to 6th Fleet duty in February 1958 and operated on patrol and exercises in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. She returned to Norfolk, Va., 2 July prior to the Lebanon crisis in which the 6^thFleet played a major role in preserving the freedom of a small nation. Ingraham operated on the East Coast until 13 February 1959, when she departed for another tour with the 6th Fleet, and a crisis over Berlin was averted through our strong naval force. Departing the Mediterranean on 30 August, she returned to Portsmouth, Va., 7 September and began overhaul.

During 1960 she engaged in operations out of Mayport, Fla., before embarking on another cruise with the 6th Fleet, beginning late September. She resumed readiness training out of May port in March 1961, before undergoing an extensive 8-month overhaul at Portsmouth. Ingraham arrived at her new homeport, Newport, R.I., 23 February 1962, then engaged in fleet operations in the Atlantic and in the Caribbean. In September and October she was assigned to the recovery area for the Project Mercury flight of “Sigma 7” and under more somber conditions took part in the Cuban blockade which ended in the removal of Russian missiles from that island. Once again this courageous ship helped participate in a series of crises resolved peacefully because of America’s overwhelming naval power.

She continued operations along the East Coast until 1 October 1963, when she sailed for another deployment to the Mediterranean to strengthen our peace-keeping force in Europe.

Regular deployment with the Atlantic Fleet occupied Ingraham’s time until 29 September 1965, when she departed Newport for the western Pacific, arriving 31 October at Yokosuka, Japan, for resupply before operations in the South China Sea. Though acting as a part of the screen for the carrier Ticonderoga (CVA-14), she also fired support missions for ground troops ashore.

On 12 November, Ingraham steamed 10 miles up the Saigon River to bombard an enemy supply base, and, by the 13th, shelled a guerrilla assembly area some 300 miles from the site of her action the previous day.

In early December, the ship kept regular surveillance on a Russian submarine off Hainan Island, bordering the Gulf of Tonkin. Ingraham’s presence with the fleet of Vietnam underscores the determination of Americans to preserve the freedom of a small nation. From 1 January 1966 to 24 January, Ingraham operated with TF-77 in the South China Sea. She left for Newport 4 February by way of the Suez Canal.

Arriving 8 April off the East Coast, Ingraham began a repair and training period. From 14 June to 21 June she participated in Operation “Beachtime,” an amphibious landing in the Caribbean. Ingraham spent 28 October to 28 November preparing for service in the Mediterranean. On 8 December she arrived at Gibraltar.

Ingraham received the Navy Unit Commendation for her action off Okinawa and four battle stars for service in World War II. She earned a fifth battle star for service in Korea.